Monday, July 30, 2012

As a collector and reseller of
vintage collectibles, like many others, every few weeks go to the “lists.”The lists are what tell us what people are
searching for and we hope, if they are searching for, they are buying.As webmaster, I also check my own list, to
see what searches have landed people on my website, but there are also lists on
Tias and eBay that are published periodically for all to see.One name that has seems to be on these lists
for a little while now is Pfaltzgraff.

The name comes up so often probably because
they have been around for more than two hundred years and have made massive
amounts of product in that time.Based
in Pennsylvania this company has thousands of people who collect their pottery.Some of their most popular patterns include
the Yorktowne, Naturewood, Pistoulet and the ever popular Winterberry.Mind you, their pottery is normally not worth
thousands of dollars, but the right pieces will sell and sell briskly.

Some of the best prices realized by
antiques and collectibles dealers are for the antique crocks that are highly
decorated.Prices for some of the more
sought after crocks can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousands
of dollars or more.Pieces from their
Winterberry collection on the other hand don’t bring in a lot of money, but they
do sell.We recently saw a serving
platter go for about $50 and a set of appetizer plates for about $40.

Friday, July 27, 2012

The August edition of the
NOVA-Antiques online Newsletter
has been published.This edition contains
about vintage and antique rotary telephone dialers; what they are and how they
came about as well as an article on how decorators and designers love antique fireplace
screens; and the recent auction of an usual antique vampire hunter kit complete with pistol, garlic and silver bullet
maker.

The August edition of the NOVA-Antiques
Newsletter also contains information about upcoming antique shows including the
Lucketts Fair which will be
held at the end of the month near Leesburg, Virginia and the Baltimore Summer
Antiques Show in Baltimore, Maryland as well as the Hillsville Flea Market and
the York Antiques Show.Lastly, the
Newsletter contains information about two upcoming auctions; a Country Store
Sale in North Carolina and large estate auction in Clarence, New York.

NOVA-Antiques is the Mid Atlantic
website for all things antique and collectible.If you enjoy reading the NOVA-Antiques
Newsletter as much as I enjoy publishing it, please hit the recommend buttons
at the top of the page so that your friends
can enjoy it too.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

On
several occasions I have walked into thrift stores and have found items that
were vintage collectibles and that I thought might have some worth to someone.My finds include a Royal Delft Bowl, Some
Replogle Globes, Moon and Stars Compotes, Asian Ivory Wall Hangings and even a
vintage toy Kaleidoscope.These have all
sold for a nice profit and I am always on the lookout for the next “great find.”Unfortunately, my luck has not been as good
as the lady in North Carolina this past April.

Beth
Feeback is an artist who bought two large paintings at the local Goodwill.Her intent was not to make a profit on them,
but to paint over them. You see, large
blank canvases can cost quite a bit of money to an artist.So many artist buy used paintings on canvas
and then recycle the canvas by putting their own artistic creations on
them.Usually this is a very smart move
because the paintings you find at thrift stores are mostly done by amateurs or
recreational painters.However, not so
in this instance.

When she
got home, Ms. Feeback did what I, and just about anyone else, would have done.She “Googled” the artist’s names and to her
surprise found that one of the artists was not an amateur at all, but none
other than Illy Bolotowski.To a lot of
people, including Beth, the name would have probably meant nothing if she hadn’t
searched it.But as it turns out, Illy
Bolotowski was a Russian born abstract painter from New York.

The
painting Beth was about to paint over was titled Vertical Diamonds and it is
estimated that it will bring in some $20,000 - $30,000 at auction.In fact, the painting will be auctioned off
in September.Not a shabby find at the
Goodwill Store for Beth Feeback and a nice tidy profit of probably over
$20,000.

Monday, July 23, 2012

A
few months I wrote about radios and collecting vintage radios in both the Newsletter and on my
NOVA-Antiques Blog. It is really easy to
fall in love with old vintage radios because of their beauty and also their
nostalgia. So it was no surprise to me
when I saw on the news recently about an old antique radio that brought in more than $34,000 at auction.

This
wasn’t just any antique radio though; this was a very rare Sparton Nocturne
radio that was made in 1936 in the art deco style of the time. These
were originally made by the Sparks-Withington Company and they only made about
500 of them. The radio that sold this
past month did not even work; had it been in working condition, the radio could
have brought in more than $75,000.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The granddaddy of all antique shows
in the Washington DC area rolls into town this weekend.The DC Big Flea, is held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia attracts
hundreds of dealers and thousands of visitors.This antique show features everything imaginable; antique furniture,
vintage porcelain, pottery and glass as well as vintage linens, lighting and
clocks.This show is definitely one of
my favorites because if you can’t find what your are looking for here, you are
probably not going to find it anyware.

If you are in the upstate New York
area, another great show is The Great American Antiquefest in Liverpool, New York.This is a three day show beginning today, that attracts close to two
hundred dealers and thousands of people from around the country.It too features furniture, vintage glass and
porcelain as well as ephemera, sterling, jewelry, toys and other vintage
collectibles.This is another “can’t
miss” antiques show.

If you are in Delaware, Virginia,
New Jersey or Pennsylvania, you may want to visit The Antiques Fair at Renninger’s this Saturday or
Sunday.They have two locations, one in
Kutztown and one in Adamstown, Pennsylvania.This antique markets are very popular with antiques and collectibles
dealers and are considered prime picking grounds.The antiques market at Kutztown is normally open
on Saturdays and the one at Adamstown is normally open on Sundays.

As a disclaimer, NOVA-Antiques does not own,
operate or manage any of the antique markets or events listed on our webpages
or blog.We provide information for our
readers and subscribers.Sometimes
owners and operators may change times and dates of events or cancel them
altogether.Please check with them
before embarking on any journey.

Monday, July 16, 2012

This weekend, I did not go out of
the house except to get a haircut and to go to the gym.Most of the weekend was spent working on my website updating webpages and
adding new inventory.For those that do
not have their own website, just to let you know, it can be tedious and time
consuming.The benefit is that you are
not paying another site a lot of money to host your online store or kiosk.But this story is not about my website, it is
about a trinket or trinket holder that I came across while toiling away; and
what exactly is a trinket?

Defining a trinket is really
simple.According to the dictionary, a
trinket is an inexpensive piece of jewelry that is also not valuable.Some would argue that an inexpensive piece of
jewelry is not jewelry at all; and so therefore the name trinket.And of course, where would one keep such
items of non-value?A trinket holder or box of
course.One wouldn’t want to mix
trinkets with real jewelry, which of course should be kept in jewelry case or
box.So the story goes that trinket
boxes go back to the 1600s and of course France.

The first trinket boxes were
actually commissioned by nobles and were nothing if not very fancy and adorned
with gold and silver.In fact, one of
the first trinket boxes was produced was in Limoge, France.Made of porcelain
and enamels and adorned in gold and silver, the trinket box was probably worth
more than the trinkets it held.And of
course if you were to get your hands on one today, it would probably be worth a
few million dollars.The good news for
those of us that don’t have millions to spend on a trinket holder is that there
are far less expensive ones on the market that can be just as eye catching.

Trinket holders or boxes, also
shortened to just trinkets by some folks, come in a variety of shapes, colors
and made of many different materials.There are inexpensive vintage glass trinkets made by glass manufacturers
such as Fenton, Westmoreland and
Jefferson.And there are those made of
porcelain from Limoges, Capodimonte,
and Sorelle.Then there are others that
are made of wood, metal or enamels and come in interesting shapes, including
animals and some that are appropriately named, casket trinket boxes because of
course they look like a casket.

Friday, July 13, 2012

The weatherman this morning said
that the weekend temperatures will be normal for this time of year in the Mid
Atlantic states.In Virginia, that means
about a sunny and pleasant mid-80s weekend.This makes it perfect weather
to get out and visit some of the area antique flea markets.

In Washington DC the granddaddy of
them all is the Georgetown Flea Market.This antique market attracts some 50-60
dealers and thousands of people from the Mid Atlantic area.This outdoor market is held outdoors and
features everything from antique furniture and vintage collectibles to retro
art glass and old advertising prints and artwork as well as linens and antique
lighting and rugs.

If you are in the New York area,
ArtHampton takes place this weekend, July 13-14, 2012.ArtHamptons
takes place once a year and is a fine arts fair in Bridgehampton, New
York.It attracts hundreds of art
galleries from around the country and around the world and features art from
among other locations, Spain, Korea, Russia and England.

If you are further south such as in
Southern Virginia or the Carolinas, you might want to visit Smiley’s Flea Market and Antique Mall.Located near Fletcher, North Carolina, this
antique market is open Friday thru Sundays and has over 100,000 square feet of
vintage collectibles, furniture, vintage toys and glass as well as porcelain,
china and of course North Carolina pottery.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A few weeks ago, a storm rolled
through the Mid Atlantic states, and pretty much the whole midsection of the
United States.After a stretch of hot
and humid days with temperatures
reaching the 95 – 100 degree range, we were hit with what some folks are now
calling a “Derecho” or in my estimation one of the freakiest weather events
that I have ever lived through.I
watched out my back doors as the neighbor’s large trampoline flew across, took
two sections of my fence and landed in our yard.A few minutes later, the winds picked it up
again, sailed it across the opening in the fence and put it right back where it
had come from, minus a few pieces.

The thunderstorms, lightning and
winds combined to take out not only a portion of my fence with the help of the
trampoline, but it took down large sized tree limbs and of course power lines,
cable lines and telephone lines.Hundreds of thousands of people were left without utilities.This then reminded me of the hurricane of
2004 that hit us while we lived inMclean, Virginia.This time we were one
of the lucky ones because we didn’t lose power, the last time we lost power for
three and a half days; no Internet, no TV, no air conditioning. . . like our forefathers before us, we
played cards and read by candlelight. Some people might think that fun, but
being an Internet junkie, for me it was a torturous.But there was a bright side to all of this,
as people started thinking of alternatives to candles and ways to “light up
their life.”

The weekend after the hurricane, I
was set up at the Clarendon AntiqueMarket in Arlington, Virginia and wouldn’t you know that I sold every
single oil lamp that I had in inventory.It didn’t matter if they were pretty, or ugly, vintage glass or retro
ceramic, every single one of our hurricane lampsflew off our tables and shelving.It was amazing, because all the while, I had had those in my inventory
and had never thought to bring them out during the power outage for my own family
to use.It wasn’t until they were flying
off the shelves that I realized I didn’t really have to use candles.Not that it would have made my situation any
better, life without power and for me the Internet would have been unbearable
regardless.

Which then leads me back to a
previous article that I had written; more folks are buying functional antiques
and collectibles.Vintage oil lamps or hurricane lamps are not only
collectible, but functional during a storm.And the nice thing about vintage oil lamps is that they are available in
so many colors, styles and shapes; they fit in with any décor in any home.Sure, you can go to Walmart or Target and get
a brand new oil lamp, but they just don’t have the character and the beauty of
the old lamps.Additionally, without power
you don’t have Internet, so sit back gaze at the flame in old oil lamp and you
can make up stories in your head about where it has been in the past, and the stories it could tell.

Monday, July 9, 2012

This weekend I started cataloging my
new inventory of vintage collectibles that I have acquired within the past few
months so that I could include them in the Outasite!!Collectibles website.In this
process I found many interesting things that I had forgotten that I had.I found some nice vintage toys, including a
1968 Effenbee doll and a retro, mid 1970s WaltDisney Goofy Doll.However, in
one box, I found some salt and pepper shakers that brought back many memories
of when I was a young kid.

As a child I remember when we all
piled into my Dad’s 1963 Chevy Impala and went and visited relatives on the
weekends.As most times, when we
visited, we ended up sitting and visiting in the kitchen, because that’s where
all the good eats were.At my aunt’s
house, I was always intrigued by the Toaster Salt and Pepper Shakers that she had sitting on the table.It looked just like a toaster from the 1950’s
with two pieces of toast sticking out.One slice of toast held the salt, the other, darker piece of toast held
the pepper.When the button lever on the
side of the toaster was pushed down, the toast would pop up allowing you to
easily grasp the salt or pepper shaker out of the toaster.Of course it wasn’t a toy and I always got in
trouble for playing with it.

At my mother’s aunt’s home, an every
Sunday go to church kind of woman, who could also cook up a storm, the eats
were even better and the toy for me was the TV salt and pepper shaker that sat on her kitchen table.This salt and pepper shaker looked just like
a TV from the late 1950s or mid 1960’s with four long legs, and in a cubicle on
top sat the salt and pepper shakers.On
the front of the TV, the channel changer knob turns to move the salt and pepper
holders up so that you can easily grasp them.It was really cool and it actually looks like a piece of dollhouse
furniture, although I never played with a dollhouse or dollhouse furniture.

I am sure a lot of baby boomers like
me will recall these and other salt and pepper shakers that sat on tables
across America.They came and still come
in various shapes, sizes and colors and mimic everything from vintage irons to cats, dogs, cows
and other animals.I think salt and pepper
shakers are nostalgic because we tend to remember the smells and sounds
associated to them when we first saw them.My aunts rice pudding with coconut and raisins; my mother’s aunt’s fried
plantains and not least of all my Italian neighbor’s lasagna and ravioli
cooking.As I sat at many of these
tables in my youth, I could not keep my hands off the functional yet toy
looking salt and pepper shakers.

Friday, July 6, 2012

What a week we
have had temperature wise here in Northern Virginia; the mercury has risen to over 95 for something like ten straight
days and the humidity has been total craziness.So much so that hundreds of thousands of people lost power due to a
freak storm that rolled through from the west and knocked out power lines.And they say that the temperature will not go
down for another few days.Phew!! . . .
who invented the thermometer anyway?

If you are a
historian or scientist, the answer to that question is not an easy one to
answer, for really there were a few people who actually “invented” it.Actually, it was more of many people
improving on everyone else’s “invention.”Galileo invented what some want to call a thermoscope and then others
added to it; including Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who later added the first
scale to the thermometer back in 1714.Then
about thirty years later Anders Celsius added a scale and then a hundred years
later Lord Kelvin added to it.

Given that they
have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, there is bound to be one
to compliment and decorate just about any room or home décor. They come in all shapes and sizes and
colors.There are long and oblong ones;
there are square one and round ones.There
are blue, green, yellow and a lot in Shabby Chic white.They are also made
of many materials including plastic, tin and wood; and they were used by many
companies to place their advertisements on.

Now, those old
thermometers of course have become antiques and vintage collectibles that many
people pride themselves in collecting.These
thermometers appeal not only to scientific artifact collectors, but the advertisement
collectors as well; such as Coke item collectors.A lot of times the thermometers were also
mounted on other functional items, such as clocks or mirrors.So these thermometers are appealing to not
only the thermometer collectors, but those folks who collect clocks or barometers as well.

Monday, July 2, 2012

With Independence Day coming up on
Wednesday, I started thinking about putting up Old Glory; strong winds a while
ago took down the bracket that held it up in front of our house.This in turn got me thinking about information
that I had written a few years ago for the NOVA-Antiques Newsletter.The article was titled Collecting Early American Flags and it was more of an
excerpt of information from John Bridgman’s article in Country Home Magazine.

In the intervening years, here are
some more things I learned about collecting the American Flag.First and foremost, in Virginia and some of
the southern states, Civil War flags are very collectible.Many of
these flags have only 35 stars.On the
more desirable flags, The 35 stars are normally embroidered by hand, but people
also collect them if the stars have been machine embroidered.The 35th star on a Civil War flag
represents West Virginia, which became as state on July 4, 1863.

Although there are many Civil War
collectors looking for flags from that era, there are quite a few other
collectors that look for any American Flag.One of the most famous and most recognizable to most of us because of
our history lessons in school
are the 13 star flag.The thirteen
stars, of course, represent the thirteen original colonies, and we were all
taught that Betsy Ross was the designer and maker of this famous American
Flag.What most people don’t know is
that Betsy’s granddaughter sold many of those flags from her establishment in Philadelphia.

Other flags, besides the Civil War
and Betsy Ross flags, that people collect include flags early 19th
Century and the country’s Centennial and Sesquicentennial celebrations.But one thing is certain, regardless of what
era the flag comes from, the flag collectors all have one thing in common, they
are American patriots, who love their country and their flag.I admire them, the collectors and the flags both, for I too am a patriot and
although my flag is neither old nor collectible, it will fly proudly in front
of my house on July 4th.